Years from now when historians consider Gavin Newsom’s time as California’s governor they should start their research with his budget release press conference from the beginning of this past week.
It hit all of the themes of Newsom’s governorship, none of which were good.
Starting nearly an hour late on Monday, Newsom unveiled topline numbers for his draft budget at a release he shoehorned into a previously-planned, unrelated stop in Turlock. Anything beyond a few topline numbers was deferred until another press conference held on Friday, one he didn’t plan to attend.
Why two press conferences? Why was he so late? What is with that backdrop?
It was all so bizarre. It was all so Newsom.
Newsom was standing in what looked like a high-school shop class, surrounded by work benches, scrap wood and a few flags placed likely by his team to give the impression that something official and stately was happening.
But not even the flats could mask the fact that the event was a colossal waste of time. Little was said. Or at least I think little was said. It’s hard to follow Newsom through the barrage of numbers and buzzwords.
Listening to Newsom give a speech is like if AI gave speeches and its only inputs were spreadsheets and business school textbooks, it wore the same blue suit, white shirt and blue tie it’s worn for the last 20 years and it waved its hands wildly like its torn between miming and signing for the hearing impaired.
Newsom says things like “localism is determinative.” That’s actually one of his favorite phrases and I’m pretty sure it has no direct translation into English. He boasts in myriad ways, from “first in the nation” or “first of its kind,” to “unprecedented,” which he caught himself saying on Monday, to “big, hairy, audacious goals,” which he definitely stole from a textbook and mercifully avoided on Monday.
Unless he is referring to levels of spending or policy failures, very little Newsom has done is “unprecedented.” But with the broader theme of spending more money and getting little results, that’s not new – we’ve been here before.
Newsom boasted of the budget’s commitment to “efficiency” and “transparency,” neither of which were on display.
Newsom called the budget “balanced,” but he is raiding savings to get there and includes a significant increase in spending.
Newsom also projected a “modest” surplus, but refused to say how much. Meanwhile, the independent and nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office projects a slight deficit of around $2 billion.
When asked about the discrepancy between his projections and the LAO, Newsom said: “The LAO had a number. We have our number. We have the benefit of all our expenditures.”
Funny, you’d think that an Administration so committed to transparency and efficiency would make it easy for the LAO, and the public for that matter, to review records of government expenditures.
But instead what Newsom meant by transparency was the upcoming release of two new websites to track progress on things like housing. While the websites might be two tiny drops of transparency in an ocean of government opacity, we’ll be lucky if they’re ever totally functional when you consider the state’s shameful history of failed IT projects.
Newsom called for $420 million more for tax credits to lure the film industry back to California, highlighting $20 million to lure a show called Bad Monkey back from Florida. Newsom said it’s a good show, and for $20 million of taxpayer funds I should hope so.
Hollywood is an important industry in California and is rapidly declining here. But is bribing shows to come here or stay really sound policy? It’s unsustainable and unfair to taxpayers. Newsom billed these credits as necessary to staying “competitive,” but having a favorable business climate, like other states have done, is a much better way to stay competitive than outbidding at auction.
What stands out most with Newsom, however, is the sleight of hand he employs when making announcements. When one reporter asked if this new budget would lead to higher taxes, Newsom acted as if it was a ridiculous question.
“Well, as long as I’m around I’m going to fight hard against that,” Newsom said. “As you know, I’ve been against many of these proposals over the last number of years.”
“No, there’d be no need (to raise taxes),” Newsom reiterated.
Yes, Gavin Newsom, the great bulwark against tax increases! I nearly forgot that just a few months ago he led the charge against a qualified ballot measure that would have made it harder to raise taxes. Or that in 2020 he tried to increase property taxes on businesses. Or how his budget last year proposed $18 billion in taxes. Or how he supported nicotine taxes. Or yearly gas tax increases.
I could go on, but what Newsom means is that he doesn’t support raising income taxes. Of course, that’s not true either. He backed a massive income tax increase in 2016. And his record proves he’ll support nearly any other tax.
Newsom bragged that California leads the nation in manufacturing jobs. While that’s technically true in terms of raw numbers – California has approximately 12% of the nation’s population so it generally wins any contest of raw numbers – its number of manufacturing jobs as part of the state’s total economy is actually quite middling when compared to other states.
Half truths. No truths. Gaslighting. Chaotic rollout. More spending. Bizarre performance. Ineffective policies. More spending. The entire Newsom show is all here in one 90-min press conference.
It’s not pretty.
Matt Fleming is a Southern California News Group opinion columnist.